Staticistally Speaking: DeSouza, Jiang Lead Scoring at #FIVBMensWCH

  0 Wendy Mayer | September 20th, 2018 | International Volleyball, News

2018 FIVB Men’s World Championships – Preliminary Round

  • Sept. 9-18, 2018
  • Bulgaria and Italy

As the second phase of the FIVB Men’s World Championships is set to begin on Friday, it is time to a look back at the numbers from the opening round and top players in each statistical category.

Wallace De Souza of Brazil and Chuan Jiang of China scored 87 points apiece to lead the field. DeSouza pounded down 81 kills and added four blocks and two aces, while Jiang chimed in with 73 kills, seven stuffs and seven perfect serves.

Rounding out the top 10 were teams from seven different nations. Canada placed two players – John Gordon Perrin (81) and Nicholas Hoag (73) among the top group as did Slovenia – Tine Urnaut (82) and Mitja Gasparini (75). American Matt Anderson placed in a three-way tie for ninth with 73 scores (61 kills, five blocks and seven aces).

Of the Top 11 scorers, Jiang, Cuba’s Miguel David Gutierrez and Puerto Rico’s Maurice Torres will not be moving on in the competition as their teams failed to reach the second round.

Rank ShirtNumber Name Team Spikes Blocks Serves Total
1 8 Wallace De Souza BRA 81 4 2 87
2 2 Chuan Jiang CHN 73 7 7 87
3 10 Miguel David Gutierrez Suarez CUB 80 4 2 86
4 9 Ivan Zaytsev ITA 64 7 12 83
5 17 Tine Urnaut SLO 75 6 1 82
6 2 John Gordon Perrin CAN 69 7 5 81
7 11 Maurice Torres PUR 67 4 8 79
8 6 Mitja Gasparini SLO 60 3 12 75
9 7 Facundo Conte ARG 62 6 5 73
10 4 Nicholas Hoag CAN 60 6 7 73
11 1 Matthew Anderson USA 61 5 7 73

Of the top scorers, four also are among the 10 most efficient hitters in the competition: Ivan Zaytsev (Italy), Anderson, DeSouza and Facundo Conte (Argentina).

Zaytsev has made good on 62.75 percent of his attempts (64 kills, 8 faults, 30 shots in 102 attempts). The United States is the only team with multiple players on the Top 10 list with Taylor Sander (57.78 percent) joining Anderson.

Rank ShirtNumber Name Team Spikes Faults Shots Total attempts Success %
1 9 Ivan Zaytsev ITA 64 8 30 102 62.75
2 18 Lincoln Alexander Williams AUS 62 14 28 104 59.62
3 18 Egor Kliuka RUS 40 6 23 69 57.97
4 14 Yuki Ishikawa JPN 55 18 22 95 57.89
5 3 Taylor Sander USA 52 17 21 90 57.78
6 1 Matthew Anderson USA 61 21 27 109 55.96
7 8 Wallace De Souza BRA 81 20 44 145 55.86
8 7 Facundo Conte ARG 62 15 34 111 55.86
9 1 Bram Van Den Dries BEL 50 14 26 90 55.56
10 9 Earvin Ngapeth FRA 57 22 24 103 55.34

Three of the Top 11 blocks hailed from China, while Belgium’s Simon Van De Voorde led that category far and away with 1.11 stuffs per set. Next on the list was Cuba’s Roamy Raul Alonso (0.74).

Rank ShirtNumber Name Team Stuff Blocks Faults Rebounds Total Attempts Average Per Set
1 10 Simon Van De Voorde BEL 21 4 20 45 1.11
2 17 Roamy Raul Alonso Arce CUB 14 14 14 42 0.74
3 17 Simone Anzani ITA 12 6 28 46 0.71
4 17 Michael Parkinson NED 14 14 15 43 0.70
5 10 Sharone Vernon-Evans CAN 12 12 15 39 0.67
6 1 Beau Graham AUS 13 15 14 42 0.65
7 4 Jan Kozamernik SLO 14 3 27 44 0.64
8 11 Sebastian Solé ARG 13 9 25 47 0.62
9 13 Longhai Chen CHN 11 19 18 48 0.61
10 17 Libin Liu CHN 11 6 4 21 0.61
11 20 Shuhan Rao CHN 11 13 18 42 0.61

In addition to the title of most efficient hitter, Italy’s Zaytsev also led all players in serving with 0.71 aces per set. He was one of three players, alongside Sander and Gasparini to serve up 12 aces, but did so in far fewer attempts.

Both Italy and the USA put two players among the top server list.

Rank ShirtNumber Name Team Aces Faults Hits Total attempts Average per set
1 9 Ivan Zaytsev ITA 12 20 36 68 0.71
2 3 Taylor Sander USA 12 23 50 85 0.60
3 18 Miguel Angel Lopez Castro CUB 11 13 41 65 0.57
4 6 Mitja Gasparini SLO 12 24 52 88 0.55
5 12 Viktor Yosifov BUL 8 17 34 59 0.47
6 5 Osmany Juantorena ITA 8 10 61 79 0.47
7 11 Micah Christenson USA 9 13 52 74 0.45
8 11 Maurice Torres PUR 8 13 33 54 0.44
9 11 Yuji Nishida JPN 8 16 35 59 0.42
10 8 Daniele Mazzone ITA 7 9 60 76 0.41

Australia’s Harrison Peacock was the top setter in the opening round, dishing out 11.85 assists per set to push the Volleyroos through to Round 2. American Micah Christenson was the only other setter to average double-digit assists per set (10.55).

Rank ShirtNumber Name Team Running sets Faults Still sets Total attempts Average per set
1 7 Harrison Peacock AUS 237 2 130 369 11.85
2 11 Micah Christenson USA 211 5 127 343 10.55
3 9 Nikola Jovovic SRB 188 4 162 354 8.94
4 8 Jay Blankenau CAN 138 4 275 417 7.67
5 16 Khaled Ben Slimene TUN 125 4 229 358 7.35
6 1 Bruno Mossa Rezende BRA 138 1 228 367 7.26
7 2 Ahmed Awal Mbutngam CMR 114 2 193 309 7.13
8 5 Sergey Grankin RUS 127 1 22 150 7.06
9 6 Simone Giannelli ITA 108 2 231 341 6.35
10 9 Georgi Seganov BUL 93 3 284 380 5.47

The title of top defender, or best digger, went to Canada’s Steven Marshall, who notched 45 digs, 2.50 per set as the Canadians went 3-2.

Rank ShirtNumber Name Team Digs Faults Receptions Total attempts Average per set
1 3 Steven Marshall CAN 45 12 9 66 2.50
2 13 Jani Kovacic SLO 43 13 22 78 1.95
3 22 Erik Shoji USA 38 1 13 52 1.90
4 16 Alexey Verbov RUS 34 3 16 53 1.89
5 9 Thales Hoss BRA 35 3 10 48 1.84
6 5 Enger Miguel Mieses Feliz DOM 29 8 11 48 1.81
7 4 Lauri Kerminen FIN 38 0 36 74 1.81
8 2 Jenia Grebennikov FRA 35 3 18 56 1.75
9 5 Dirk Sparidans NED 35 1 5 41 1.75
10 13 Massimo Colaci ITA 29 9 9 47 1.71

And no team would be complete without its best serve receiver. The United States held down the top two spots in the category, while Slovenia, and Belgium also managed two spots among the Top 10.

Rank ShirtNumber Name Team Excellents Faults Serve receptions Total attempts Efficiency %
1 3 Taylor Sander USA 44 2 53 99 42.42
2 22 Erik Shoji USA 35 4 37 76 40.79
3 18 Klemen Cebulj SLO 60 5 74 139 39.57
4 9 Earvin Ngapeth FRA 53 2 77 132 38.64
5 17 Pawel Zatorski POL 32 3 44 79 36.71
6 13 Jani Kovacic SLO 33 4 42 79 36.71
7 5 Tatsuya Fukuzawa JPN 48 7 57 112 36.61
8 2 Jenia Grebennikov FRA 34 8 32 74 35.14
9 17 Tomas Rousseaux BEL 27 2 44 73 34.25
10 6 Lowie Stuer BEL 37 8 41 86 33.72

 

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About Wendy Mayer

Wendy Mayer

Wendy Mayer has worked in athletics media relations for the last 20 years. The Northwest Missouri State alumna is currently senior writer for Volleymob.com after spending the last 15 years with Purdue athletics.

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